


Reconsquideration

by Rabentochter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cecaelias, Established Relationship, Fluff, Loki (Marvel) Feels, M/M, Secrets, Tentacle Loki, Tentacle feels, Tentacles, the title is a pun and Im so proud of myself, they wanted feels they get knowledge instead, this has an educational background, what do you mean with there was no tentacle feels tag before are you okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabentochter/pseuds/Rabentochter
Summary: Loki is the most foolish mollusk who has ever left the sea.He’s 1129 years old, has eight legs, nine brains and three hearts that all beat for one small, annoying human ever since he fell in love with him three months ago.Said human has no idea of his special limbs though.





	Reconsquideration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [STARSdidathing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARSdidathing/gifts), [NamelesslyNightlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/gifts).



> This started with Stars throwing another one of her prompts in the discord channel. Continued with a monster ad and a tentacle song. And then I got 'convinced' to write this.  
> Even if I took some liberties with that prompt~
> 
> Thank you, **STARSdidathing** for this wonderful prompt, I blame you for this.  
> And **NamelesslyNightlock** who more often than not got to hear and learn tentacle/octopus facts at ridiculous times (for me at least), and both for the cheering and yelling. You are amazing! <3 
> 
> Also this only looks so good and pretty because **Raven_Ehtar** did an amazing job at betaing this tentacle baby! <3  
> And they and **AMidnightDreary** influenced the ending.  
> Their fault. 
> 
> Look at me. It's 2019 and I learned how to share the blame.  
> Enjoy :D

My name is Loki.

My _name_ is Loki and I’ve got something to tell you, Anthony.

I _am_ Loki.

No wait. From the beginning.

I am Loki, although I don’t exactly look like I do right now and -  
Oh god, that was horrible.

 

Loki gulps nervously. His fingers tremble. He is not only Loki, but he is also the most foolish mollusk who has ever left the sea.

It’s not his fault Thor had dared him to leave the sea. He most certainly had never ever left his home before to walk upon the earth and mingle with human folk.

He’s 1129 years old, has eight legs, nine brains and three hearts that all beat for one small, annoying human ever since he fell in love with him three months ago. Before that they spent some time together as drinking buddies in bars or just … met to mock ridiculous politicians.

Said human has no idea of his _special_ limbs though.

 

Loki just possesses the ability to shapeshift and turn his eight beautiful tentacles into two normal human legs that walk on earth.

 

Legs he uses to entwine with those of his human with in bed and spoon him, keep him close to himself. Legs that are actually eight tentacles and he made them into human legs, four tentacles each.

His human.

How curious. 

He’s on the way to Anthony's house on the cliffs, meeting his _boyfriend_ there.

 

“My name is Loki,” he mumbles and walks on. Clad in the black suit his _boyfriend_ gifted him with for their outing. A dinner date in a fancy restaurant Anthony favoures because it provides privacy, a rarity for him.

His boyfriend, who also is a superhero. Iron Man, he got called by the newspapers and just stuck with it from hence on. He adores the sound of it.

“Anthony, I’m still Loki and I'm still _me_ . Although I have tentacles,” he stops. No, this doesn't sound _right_. He tries again while walking up to the door of the villa. “I haven't told you because I'm scared of your reaction, but Anthony, I am actually an octopus. I have eight legs instead of two, I can actually shapeshift into a human but I prefer not to. And have a lot of brains.”

 _“I'm sure Sir appreciates your brain,”_ Jarvis cuts in. “ _And the more the better, I dare say.”_

Loki stands still. Very still. Hoping Jarvis only got the bit with the brains and not-  
“ _And I'm pretty sure Sir doesn't mind you having tentacles instead of legs as well.”  
_-the bit with the tentacles as well. 

“You're not … against it?” he asks the AI, with hope in his voice. Loki knows that he has no chance for a future relationship with Anthony if his AI doesn't approve of him. And he'd love to have have an even deeper relationship with his hero and think about a possible means of lengthening Anthony's life span as well.

Barely 80 years is nothing to a cecaelia, who live for a good 3,000 years. That is if Anthony would even get _that_ old with his ruined liver and crushed rib cage.

Oh, how he hates alcohol for destroying his human from the inside out.  
_“I could care less if you have eight legs or 20, or even three noses. All I care about is Sir’s happiness.”_

Loki breathes, relief flooding through him in waves. “Thank you,” Loki says and walks on, searching for Anthony.

He feels a little bit like dying. Or like when he ate too many crabs on a hunt with Thor and couldn't stop eating them all.

He prefers them cooked now, all thanks to his adorable Landwalker. He often gets weird looks from his family when he refuses a plate of crustaceans and wants them cooked instead. Although his mother has this _knowing_ look in her eyes and he can’t help but think she knows what’s going on. Why he neglects his duties, why he buries himself in their library, hoping to gain all the necessary information about landwalkers he could possible need.

 

“Hello Loki,” Anthony greets him with a smile.  

And suddenly, all sanity leaves Loki and all words he had prepared to say - to confess to his boyfriend _gently_  that he’s not exactly what he seems to be - are gone and he just rushes out: “I’macecaelialiveintheoceanandIwantedtotellyouthatalsoIloveyou.”

He blinks. Repeatedly. It feels like he swam a marathon and didn’t train for it.

“I have no idea what a cecaelia is, Lokes. But I love you as well?”

 

“Oh.”

He coughs, embarrassed and actually wants to sink in the floor and be gone from Anthony’s curious look.

 “So, what is a cecaelia? A drug? Please don’t tell me you’re a drug addict, Lokes. I mean, I’d still be here and support you with getting rid of the drug but I… no, that wasn’t what I wanted to say.” He nibbles on his lips. “Yes. Whatever it is, you can tell me, I don’t bite? Or, not too hard? Except if you want me to?”

 He’s rambling. Loki smiles a bit, finding it too endearing to stay unmoved. “I-” he stops. Swallows. “Just … forget it.”

  _Coward_ , his mind hisses and he can’t but agree. But wasn’t it better this way? Have Anthony forget it and they just continue with their lives? Like nothing ever happened?

 “No, I won’t,” Anthony says as if to spite him. He takes Loki’s wrist oddly gently into his hand and strokes over it. As if to calm him down. Is that his pulse, beating so erratically unter Anthony’s fingers?

 “It would be better.”

 “Yeah, how about no?” his lover argues and holds him tighter.  “Spill the beans, Lokes. I won’t be mad if that’s what you’re worried about.”

 “Promise me?”

 Anthony looks him in the eyes, searching for something. “I promise you I won’t be mad.”

 Loki nods. Nods again. Breathes in. “I’m half octopus.” Breathes out.

 

And suddenly, everything calms down inside of him. Whatever happens now will be out of his control. He can’t decide what Anthony will do. He can only stand here and hope the outcome will be in his favour.

 “Okay, cool. Upper or lower half?” And with that his landwalker grins and waggles his eyebrows, seemingly completely at ease.

 “L-lower?”  
 “Can I see?”  
 “See?”  
 A shrug. “Yes. I mean, if you want to?” 

“If _I_ want to?”

“Yes?”

“This is not what I expected to happen when I came here,” Loki says and astonishment colours his voice. “I expected you to yell at me for deceiving you.”

 Anthony smiles fondly and pulls him closer in. “I’d never yell at you, Lokes. So maybe you didn’t tell me you are a … a what again?”

 “Cecaelia.”

 “Peculiar name.”

 " _If I may cut in,”_ Jarvis’ voice suddenly comes from the ceiling with an amused lilt. _“You might remember ‘Vampirella’?”  
_“Darkly, Jarvis.”

 “Vampirella?” Loki asks with tilted head, not understand where this was heading. 

“A comic series, debuted during the 70’s,” Anthony explains and winks. “Beautiful pale super heroine with amazingly long black hair.”

“If that’s an attempt at flattery, try better next time.”

“Done.”

 

 _“There was a woman called ‘Cilia’, a woman-octopus hybrid. Her name was mispronounced and from that point on, the term Cecaelia got stuck for half octopus beings,”_ Jarvis explains, then adds: _“Or Cilophyte.”_  

“And what are you trying to tell us with that information?”

 _“Spreading knowledge and distracting you, Sir,”_ Jarvis informs them politely and then goes silent again.

“Well, he accomplished that.” Anthony turns to Loki. “Are you willing to show me?” 

“Can we go to the sea for that?”

 “You can’t do that here?”

Loki shakes his head and gestures to his - still very human - legs. “If I turn right now, I’d just sink to the floor.”

“Seriously?”

He nods. “I don’t have bones there, Anthony.” He smiles. “They work mainly like muscular hydrostats. I couldn’t stand on them, they only function in water really well.”

His mortal nods and reaches for the wardrobe handle. “I’ll put on something more fitting for the sea, and then we can go and you can show me your tentilla?”

 

“Did you just call my tentacles _small_?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to pay for that.”

 “You going to pull me underwater with your tentacles?” Anthony mocks him and pulls out a pair of swimming trunk. Loki snorts. They are red, with the Iron Man helmet printed on it. Sometimes his lover is so _vain_ , he can’t help but adore it.

 

 _“If I may cut in,”_ Jarvis says, _“but I need to correct you with your assumption about tentacles, Sir.”_

 “You do?” Loki’s  right eye is twitching. He is very sensitive with what is said about his precious tentacles. They are _his._

  _“Yes. Since Master Loki here is partially octopus I feel compelled to tell you, he does not have tentacles.”_

 “Come again?”

  _“An octopus has eight arms. They are called arms when they only have suckers on the top. It is a tentacle only if the invertebrate structure has suckers along its entire length.”_

 It’s just Loki’s respect for Anthony’s genius that stops his magic and his desire to _hurt_ Jarvis for even suggesting his tentacles are not tentacles at all.

 “Jarvis,” he begins, sweet as a chocolate cake. “You know what _these_ are?” He points at his arms. His human arms. The long, muscular pale arms with bones in them.

 " _Arms, Sir,”_ the AI dutifully replies.

 “Exactly.”

 “Lokes, please don’t kill my AI,” Anthony whispers and pulls off his boxers. For a moment Loki gets distracted. Then he focuses on the matter at hand again and Jarvis’ insult.

 

“Then how dare you suggest that my tentacles are arms, when they clearly are _not_ arms?”

  _“I’m sorry, but that is the correct biological term,”_ Jarvis tries to soothe his poor, riled up nerves (and tentacles).

“I think I can safely say for myself, as _tentacle owner_ that I have tentacles,” Loki growls and looks at his boyfriend. “Are you done? I’d like to show you my _tentacles_ now.”

“Yes, I think we can go,” Anthony nods and opens the door for him. Polite little landwalker. His heart beats a few thuds faster. A hidden weakness of his: politeness and manners make him weak in the tentacles. “In the knees,” as Anthony would say as knee-owning being, not knowing how lucky he is to have them.

 

“Jarvis, don’t you want to apologize to Loki for insulting him and his tentacles?”

_“I apologize, Sir, but I simply wanted Master Loki to realise that you wouldn’t mind him having tentacles. He expressed explicit concern over that earlier.”_

Loki raises one brow. “So that was all a just a show then, Jarvis? You wanted to show me that Anthony doesn’t mind me having tentacles, by offending my tentacles?”

 

 _“Yes, Sir. Although according to our biology you might have arms, if you say you have tentacles as ceca_ _elia then you have tentacles.”_

“No, no, no,” Anthony cuts in. He has a gleam in his eyes and licks his lips. “The questions is, do you have suckers all along your tentacles, Lokes, or just on the top?”

And suddenly, an image of Anthony, being covered in hickeys all over his body appears in Loki’s mind. Regularly shaped hickeys, 240 suckers on each tentacle and that eight times over? He shivers. The number of hickeys and his lover _proudly_ wearing them, at least the 1,920 … he gulps. And suddenly wants to be at the beach _right now_.

“Just wait and see,” he responds to Anthony and hurries out of the room. Then stops. Turns around. “Since you didn’t freak out about me having tentacles,” he smiles and puts out his hand. “How do you feel about learning another secret of mine?”

 

“Count me in,” Anthony grins and grabs his hand faster than an octopus could spill ink. Loki smiles, waves with his other, empty hand around a bit in the air, and in the next moment they are on the beach and waves hit them at their ankles.

 

His feet tickle. His tentacles know where they are and demand to be let free, to join the ocean again after enduring this strange shape.

“We need to go in a bit deeper, is that okay with you?” Loki asks, seeing his boyfriend just turn his head back and forth, taking in what just happened. 

“You- you,” he gasps and gesticulates to the cliffs and the sea. “We were just standing in my bedroom. Now we’re here? How?”

“Magic,” Loki replies grinning, and lets green sparkles pop up between his fingers. “How did you think I can turn into a human?”

“I hadn’t thought that far, to be honest.”

 

“You Landwalkers seldom do when you talk or think about octopus,” Loki sniggers and thinks fondly of the hoax he pulled that one time in the 90’s. “It’s not our fault when your tentacles are so-” Anthony stopped and swallowed whatever he wanted to say about his tentacles.

“Good looking?” Loki suggests. “Make you all _horny_ , you perverts, and make you forget all reason and science?”

 

“Y-yes?”

 

Loki nods. “I understand and do not fault you for that. They are indeed a thing of beauty.” He waits for a bit. “Although I’ll never understand how so many of you could think that an octopus would be able to live in a tree.”

 

Anthony starts giggling. “The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus?”

“Yes.”

And with that Anthony loses it, doubles over in laughter and clutches his belly. “I- I _love_ that octopus.”

“You know it?” 

“I do,” Anthony admits through his laughter and tries to calm down. “Back then I was in my late 20s and I convinced Obi to donate money to the website.”

“You didn’t." 

“I so did,” Anthony says, wiping away the few tears on his face. “Stark Industry money to save the poor endangered octopus. Good press, you know.”

“... So he was the one who donated that much money?”

“Yepp.”

 

“I think I should tell you that the money got donated  to an organization that specialized in helping sea creatures.”

Anthony looks at him suspiciously, and Loki feels a pleased grin form on his face. “How do you know that?”

“Well,” Loki drawls and winks. “Who else but me, a cecaelia, is more invested in taking care of endangered octopus living in trees?”

“I think I love you even more for that,” Anthony admits after he laughed some more.

 

Loki doesn’t mind that all, he enjoys seeing Anthony smile and laugh. How he lights up from the inside and his eyes shine so much brighter … it is a sight to behold.  

“I love you as well,” Loki responds in kind and leads them out in the deep. He stops when the water reaches a bit over Anthony’s hips. 

He got worried that his form would _disappoint_ or even _displease_ Anthony. Humans had a certain image in mind when they thought of a mix between octopus and man. Would he-

 

No.

He had to have trust in Anthony. No way he’d respond that well before to the revelation that he has tentacles and can also do magic, that he’d get angry and freak out now.

Trust.

He can trust him. 

“Are you ready?” he asks Anthony, although the question was directed at himself as well.

“Yupp. Are you?”

As a response Loki waves his hands around and feels his legs divide into his eight tentacles. Finally.

They curl in the water, stretching after being stuck in the other form for _so long_ and Loki relaxes into the water. He’s home again and has Anthony with him.

 

“You look-” Anthony starts just to stop himself again. Loki swims closer to his lover, loops his lower half around Anthony’s legs, petting softly, and puts his arms around his neck. He shudders. Loki grins sheepishly.

“Amazing,” he breathes softly and reaches into the water to _touch_ Loki’s tentacles. It’s his turn to shudder and his suckers all go tense and relax. It feels so … good to have Anthony’s warm hands on him.

“You can change colours?” 

“I can,” Loki replies and changes his turquoise to green hues.

“Fascinating,” Anthony murmurs and keeps stroking his tentacles.

They stay like that for a while. Loki on the same spot just softly caressing Anthony, exploring him anew, and his mortal, his dear, sweet human explores him with soft strokes, tickling him sometimes and just … seems to enjoy it.

 

“You don’t mind this?” Loki asks, wanting to make sure he reads his lover right.

“No,” he replies with a smile. “I don’t mind, Lokes. It’s pretty cool.” He shrugs. “Although we still have to continue to meet on land for dates, I can’t breathe for all eternity.” He freezes. “No, wait. I can,” he shoots a grin at Loki, winks. “For you and your _arms_ , I can figure something out and then we can take some long swims, how does that sound?” 

“Perfect.”

In the next moment, he pulls at Anthony’s legs strongly enough to make him fall over and end up in the water.

He wore his swimming trunks out of a reason, right?

 

And he had insulted his tentacles. If he couldn’t get revenge on Jarvis, he could exact it on Anthony.

Sputtering, Anthony resurfaces and wipes water away from his eyes. “Wh-what was that, you sneaky squid?”

Loki grins unapologetically. “You insulted me, that was simply payback.”

“Do you mean to say I deserved that?”

“Yes.”

“You’re cruel,” Anthony whines, swimming closer and in the next moment, slinging his legs around Loki’s body. “I can’t swim. You have to save me from drowning,” he declares and pecks Loki on the nose.

“You literally just swam to me.”

“No, I didn’t. That’s a lie.”

 

Loki sighs and closes his eyes in defeat. Not that he’d mind in the slightest. The feel of Anthony’s body on his, his acceptance and his trust for him after he revealed his true form-

It was overwhelming.

 

He smiles. “Thank you,” he says and pulls his ridiculous landwalker closer to him. “For accepting me for what I am.” His tentacles curl in pleasure and turn a lighter shade of green with yellow spots. He loves that colour the best.

“No problem,” Anthony replies and bends his head slightly downwards, taking in the new colour. “I need to have a closer look at that sometime. Just so you know.”

“Gladly,” Loki replies and tips Anthony’s chin upwards with his hand, wanting to have his lover’s eyes on him again.

He presses a small kiss on his lips. Just glad to have Anthony’s acceptance.

“Jarvis was right,” Anthony murmurs against his lips, gifting him then with another short, sweet kiss.

“You have arms. Not tentacles.”

 

For that comment, Loki dumps Anthony into the water again.

 

No one insults his tentacles.

 

No one.

  


**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt was the following:  
> A cute little love story about Loki wearing a shapeshifted guise as a human and being nervous his boyfriend will be afraid of his true form. But Tony tells him he's beautiful and the tentacles and Loki's arms wrap around him for a BIG HUG and Tony laughs and melts into the embrace and cuddles.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! (And learned all something, like octopus can't live in trees :P)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Bone Deep](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17774912) by [NamelesslyNightlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock)




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